Page 32 of The Devil's Ice

“OK,” she said quietly. She’d think about that later, because he still hadn’t said anything about this contraption on her neck – and she suspected thatthiswas the injury to actually focus on. A few scars on her face were no big deal, in the big picture, though she knew she’d mourn the loss of her physical attractiveness at some point. Later. After all, whatwasshe without her looks? “And my neck?”

“Yeah.” Ice held her hand tighter. “It’s broken.”

“What?” And there she was at code red, utterly fucking panicked, from zero to nine-hundred in one second. “What?”

“Hey, hey,” Ice said again, rushing to reassure her. “You’re not paralyzed, and you won’t ever be, and you don’t need to go under the knife. Your spine is totally intact and fine, so it’s a matter of about eight weeks of the brace, and rest, and then your neck will heal.”

“Is that – how is thatpossible?”

“I know, right? I thought that a broken neck was end game, you know? But it’s not. Turns out, it’s like any other broken bone. You keep it in traction and limit movement, and it just – it takes care of itself.”

“So I do nothing?”

“You’ll be doingplenty,” Ice said. “You’ll be healing.”

Vixen was quiet for a few seconds, thinking about everything that she’d just been told, trying to decide how scared she was. After a bit of mental gymnastics, and reflecting that she was incredibly lucky in more ways than she’d fully appreciated yet, she realized that her worries were mostly to do with money. How was she supposed to keep her life afloat while she was flat on her ass healing for two months, probably more? She sure as hell couldn’t work, and treatment like what she was getting wasn’t cheap, and private hospital rooms cost the earth, and it wasn’t like waitressing at a biker bar came with medical insurance.God, the bill for the ambulance alone was going to wipe out most of her modest savings, she was sure.

“What, Vix?” Ice was watching her. “What is it?”

Vixen tried to smile, raised her eyebrows, reminded herself to focus on gratitude because this could have all gone a totally different way, and not a good one. “No, nothing. It’s just a lot of information.”

“Nuh-uh. Come on, now. Tell me.”

“Well…”

“What?”

“Well, I’m worried about –”

“Money?”

She blinked at him. “How did you –?”

“Jesus, Vix.” He shook his head at her. “Do you think that you’ll be payingone fucking centtowards your health care or your bills for the next two months? Do you think you’ll have to worry about making rent, or buying groceries, or paying the heating bill?”

“I – ” She stared at him. “Yes?”

“No.”

“How no?”

“Because,” said a voice from the doorway. “The bills are on us. Every penny and for as long as you need. Money is thelast thingthat you should be thinking about. Not after what you did.”

Vixen couldn’t turn her neck at all, but of course she recognized Scars’ voice. He walked over to the bed, and stood there gazing down at her, a look of disbelief and relief all across his face.

“You amazing woman,” Scars said with a tone of awe and respect that Vixen had never heard in a man’s voice when addressing her. “You fucking brave, kick-ass, life-saving, gun-toting,amazing woman.”

She felt a blush spread across her face. “Scars.”

“Badass.”

She blushed deeper, which meant that shehadto be purple by now. “How’s Keira? I mean, how is shereally?”

“She’s really OK,” Scars said gently. “Asking aboutyouevery ten minutes, so she’ll need to see you when you feel up to it. It’ll set her mind at rest.”

“She can come anytime she wants.”

“Well,” Ice said doubtfully. “Maybe wait until the bandages are off?”

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